I went for a job interview in Analog Devices while a student in Johns Hopkins. When the interview finished, and my future boss was helping me to a rented car, I quickly realized that the company was inside MIT. Really? A company with $billions of revenue was inside a university complex? (ADI has a market cap of $50 billion at the moment.) But wait – there were other companies in what you may mistake as lecture halls. That is the beauty of America and the strength when universities become beds of innovation.
That takes me to the massive acres of land in my alma mater – Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO). Imagine if companies are occupying those empty lands. Besides the academic quality, the biggest innovation in American education is the fusion of markets and universities.
Nigeria needs to copy that. It has to be organic: a symbiotic value creation for schools and companies, and Team Nigeria wins. Nations rise through markets; Nigerian universities must lead from within.
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Well, there’s something being done in that respect, so when the grand vision becomes fully visible, Nigerians will see that some people are capable of thinking and doing big things here; so it’s another let’s wait and see…
I do think in another decade and half, many will look back and marvel at what some Nigerians were able to put together, across different sectors. We can only wish for good health of mind and body. The talent and execution capability of the guys working behind the scenes are not in doubt, only time will take care of everything.
Nigeria got talent, and people who have given up on Nigeria will fall in love again.
God bless Nigeria!
Wait and see indeed.